Chapter 7

Edith Butler was only 9 months old when she was orphaned. As I mentioned she was taken in by her grandparents William and Annie Butler.

On the left is Edith as a baby and right Edith and Herbert

At the age of 20 Edith married 25 year old Herbert William Tirrell who lived in the nearby village of Maltby. They were married on 26^th December 1920 at St James' Church in Ravenfield. They went to live in Bramley which is another nearby village. According the the 1921 census they were living at 19 Cross Street in Bramley. On the census return Herbert had written that he was out of work then crossed this out. He gave his place of employment as Thurcroft Colliery.

On 3^rd March 1922 Herbert and Edith's daughter Kathleen Lilian was born at 19 Cross Street. Kathleen Lilian was my mother.

I don't know when the family moved but by 1925 they were living at 111 Northfield Lane in Wickersley in a bungalow which I believe my granddad built. On 26^th September Edith was busy doing her housework and while dusting the mantelpiece her apron caught fire. Her neighbour heard her screams and found her in flames. She wrapped her in a rug and once the flames had gone out she sent for an ambulance. Edith was taken to Rotherham Hospital but sadly died the same day. Cause of death given as shock from burns, she was 25 years old. My mother lost her mother at such a young age that she couldn't remember her and I never knew my grandmother.

My granddad was in the same position as a lot of my male ancestors, a young father with no wife to care for the family. Help wasn't far away. Aunt Fanny stepped in and took Kathleen to live with her and her husband Joe Brocklesby in Ravenfield.

Mum remembered her with great affection. She told me she had a lovely garden and she kept pigs and chickens. When she was in the garden she always wore a man's flat cap. She was a religious lady and mum always had to kneel at the side of the bed and pray before going to sleep. Fanny must have been a angel I think. She had no children of her own but devoted herself to the children of her family who needed help.

Granddad remarried when mum was five years old. He married 25 year old Evelyn Davis on 3^rd December 1927 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Rotherham. Mum went to live with her dad and his new wife and soon had a half sister and a few years later a half brother. Evelyn was my grandmother and a very lovely one.

I am sure my story isn't unique. Lots of families must have had similar stories through the ages. Not only amongst the people living in poverty but in every walk of life.

Chapter 8

This has brought me into the 20^th century and thankfully with advances in medicine and discovery of antibiotics the mortality surrounding childbirth has improved vastly. Contraception has reduced the number of children people are having and childbirth is much safer. Children are growing up healthier and thanks to vaccination are not dying from childhood diseases as often.

Two World Wars meant a great loss of life in the 20th century reducing the male population especially. Women were left without husbands and bringing their children up alone. Women who previously would have stayed at home looking after families were now finding they needed to work to support themselves.

After World War 2, halfway through the 20^th century the National Health Service was formed which meant that everyone had access to healthcare which was funded by a contribution from their wages. The country began to prosper and as food became more abundant everyone was healthier.

Two centuries later into the 21^st century, things were looking better but who knows now what the Covid Pandemic will bring. We already have a vaccine thanks to previous medical research so can we look forward to better times?

 Chapter 5

Like his father before him William remarried. He married Annie Elizabeth Matthewman on 10th September 1867 in Sheffield. According to the entry in the register she was 21 years old but on the 1871 census 4 years later her age is entered as 20. Don't know which is correct but also on the register both her and William have given their address as Franklin Street. I wonder if she was 17 and didn't have her parents consent to be married and that is why they weren't married in the parish where either of them lived and maybe were staying in rented accommodation in the parish where they were marrying. William had given his occupation as Mason.

Family history can be so frustrating when things don't fall into place easily and you end up trying to be Sherlock Holmes.

Even at 21 she was such a young woman to be taking on his young motherless children. William and Annie on to have six children, Fanny, George, James, Frank, Eliza and Emma between 1868 and 1879. The fact that they called their first son George might indicate that William's first born son George, from his marriage to Eliza, had indeed died. I have still been unable to confirm this. On the 1881 census William's occupation was confirmed as a mason in a quarry.

William's second son from his first marriage with Eliza was Charles Henry who is the next generation in my family tree. He married Everill Stacey, daughter of John and Mary Stacey who like Charles, also lived in Ravenfield. They married at St James' Parish Church in Ravenfield on 4^th January 1887.

In 1891 Charles and Everill were living in Newmillerdam, Wakefield where Charles was working as a general labourer. At that time they had two children, Ernest age 3 years and Lily age 9 months. On the 8^th July 1900 Everill gave birth to another daughter who they named Edith. Sadly when Edith was only 25 days old Everill died. Cause of death was Pneumonia (10 days), heart failure and childbirth (25 days). She was only 31 years old. Another of my ancestors left widowed with 3 young children. It is hard to imagine how he coped with this as they were living over 20 miles away from both their families who lived in Ravenfield.

The sad story does not end here. Less than 6 months after Everill's death, on 10^th January 1901, Charles also died of broncho-pneumonia and heart failure at the age of 38. This makes me wonder what their living conditions must have been like. Were they living in damp poorly maintained housing and unable to afford anything better? The person who registered Charles' death was his half sister Fanny. Maybe she had been living with him and caring for his three children since Everill's death.

Chapter 6

Charles died early in census year so it was easy to find out what happened to his young children by looking at the 1901 census taken on 5^th April 1901.

I found 13 year old Ernest and 9 month old Edith living in Ravenfield with their grandparents, William and Annie Butler and their children Fanny 33, Frank 26 and Emma 21, who were still living at home. I like to think maybe Fanny continued to care for them or at least helped her parents to do so as she didn't have any occupation according to the census.

Ten year old Lily was also living in Ravenfield with her maternal grandparents, John and Mary Stacey, and their two sons John and George who were both still at home. As Ravenfield was only a small village I like to think they all three kept in contact with each other.

Ernest and Edith were still living with William and Annie on the 1911 census and Lily was still living with John and Mary, along with her husband Frank Garner who she had married in March 1911.

Fanny Butler was still unmarried at the age of 42 and on the night of the 1911 census was a visitor in the home of her sister Emma and brother in law Joe Brocklesby and their 6 year old son Stanley, who also lived in Ravenfield.

Picture on left taken about 1889. Fanny, Eliza and Emma Butler, the 2nd a later photo of Fanny

Before I continue my direct line I will say more about Charles' half sister Fanny. In January 1914 Fanny's sister Emma Brocklesby died when her son Stanley was 10 years old. I think maybe Fanny then took on the job of looking after him. Two years later, when she was 47 years old, she married Stanley's father Joe Brocklesby.

 

Chapter 3.

Matthew Butler was the 13^th child of Charles and Jane Butler. He was born in Thrybergh and was baptised on 14^th May 1799 at St Leonard’s Church.

On 23^rd July 1822 at the age of 23, Matthew married 31 year old Mary Askew at St James Church in Ravenfield, which was Mary’s home village. Their first son John sadly died at the age of 7 months the following year. They went on to have 4 more children but at the age of 40 Mary died following the birth of a daughter also called Mary and she was buried on 22^nd May 1830 at St James' Church in Ravenfield. Her daughter Mary lived for only 2 months and she was buried on 24^th July. It was a very hard time for Matthew being left a widower, with three small children, at the age of 31.

On 21^st February 1832 Matthew remarried. His new wife was Frances Bell according to the entry in the parish register. On the birth certificates of their children her maiden name is given as Frances Tye.

I have found records of them having eight children. Sadly two of these died quite young. Jane born in 1834 died in 1838 two months short of her 4^th birthday and Ann their youngest child born in 1846 died at the age of 7 in 1853. Their son Matthew who was born in 1939 sadly died in 1859 at the age of 20.

Three of Matthew's children with his first wife Mary also died young, John at 7 months, Francis 20 years and Mary 2 months. Of the 13 children that Matthew had four them died in infancy and Francis and Matthew died when they were 20 and 19 respectively.

The line of descent follows on with William who was the sixth child born to William and Frances. He was born on 13^th December 1841 in Ravenfield.

Chapter 4

In 1861 William was working as a farm labourer in Kirk Sandall which in Doncaster not far from Ravenfield. He was living on the farm and there he met 18 year old Eliza Matthews who was also working on the farm as a house servant. They are seen there on the 1961 census. William and Eliza were married on 8^th April 1862 in St James' Church, Ravenfield. Very soon they had two young sons, George born in 1862 and Charles Henry in 1863. 

As he grew up things were quite hard and there wasn't much work for young men in the area. William worked as a farm labourer as did most young men at that time. In order to earn some extra money William helped the gamekeeper in the local woodlands. Because of the lack of work at that time people were unable to afford enough food to feed their families and they would go out poaching wildlife. The wealthy landowners didn't like this as they used the game on their land for sport. They employed gamekeepers to try and stop the poachers. On October 10^th 1865 William joined the gamekeeper and 2 other men in the hope of catching some poachers. Sadly things went very wrong and they were surprised by a group of about a dozen men who attacked them. They were beaten and bombarded with stones. This resulted in the death of the gamekeeper William Lilley. William Butler was also injured but managed to escape to get help.

It must have a been a frightening time for William who was 24 years old and father of 2 young sons with a very pregnant wife at home. Not only the attack but also having to give evidence in court about the attack must have been difficult for him. Four men were found guilty of manslaughter and were transported to Australia.

To get back to my family history now and more tragedy. William's wife Eliza gave birth to their 3rd child William in November 1865 just a month after the attack and she died on the 30^th November age 23 years. Cause of death given as Pthisis (tuberculosis) but maybe childbirth also played a part. So another young man with a young family was widowed. I have been unable to trace William's first son George who was born in 1862. I can find no record of a death or any mention of him on the censuses. His other 2 sons were Charles Henry and William.

 Continuing with my Butler ancestry

Chapter 2 

Rather than travel backwards through the Butler lineage I will start as far back as I know.

 The earliest Butlers I have found were Edward Butler and his wife Martha Jackson. According to parish records, they were married at the Parish Church in Hooton Roberts in Yorkshire on 17^th June 1734. Edward was a shoemaker and Martha was a spinster both of    the parish of Hooton Roberts.

The parish records also recorded the baptisms of 9 children of Edward and Martha between 1735 and 1753, the last one, a daughter called Hannah, was sadly recorded in the burial register for the same year of her birth. I don’t know if the others all reached adulthood though. Families of that size were the norm at that time as also were infant deaths.

I do not know when Edward and Martha were born, but both their burials were recorded in Hooton Roberts, Edward on 1^st February 1763 and Martha’s 3 years later on 12^th May 1766.

Their 8^th child, a boy named Charles, was baptised on 1^st August 1750 in Hooton Roberts. He is the next generation on my family tree. He married Jane Roebuck on 31^st December 1778 at St James’ Church in the nearby village of Ravenfield. Jane was born in Ravenfield and was one of the four children of William Roebuck and his wife Mary Barber.

Charles and Jane had 16 children, the first two were born in Ravenfield but the rest were born in Thrybergh which is another nearby village. It is difficult to imagine having so many children and thinking of names for them all. Their youngest child, Dinah was born in 1806. I have found death records for 3 of their children who died in infancy. One of these was Charlotte who died in 1792. They used her name for another daughter who was born in 1801, maybe in memory of her and not, I hope, because they have run out of names they liked. Charles and Jane both died in 1824. They were buried at St Leonard’s Church in Thrybergh, Charles in February and Jane in June.

St Leonard’s Church in Thrybergh, 

 It's a long time since I posted anything here, mainly because I haven't really done much research for a few years.  The publishing of the 1921 census has started me looking at it again.  I have found some of my family on the census and one of the entries is that of my maternal grandparents Herbert William Tirrell and Edith Butler who had only been married for about 6 months when the census was taken on 19th June.

This reminded me that a couple of years ago I had started writing the story of Edith's ancestry back to the first half of the 18th century which is as far as I have been able to go.  I have now finished it and it is a sad story.  I will tell it here a chapter at a time.  

This is a photo of  Edith taken in about 1914 taking part in a school Christmas concert. Edith is second from the left on the top row. 

Butler Ancestry

Chapter 1.

To anybody doing family history research it soon becomes obvious that the health of our ancestors was quite precarious compared to this day and age. There was no health care service and knowledge of disease was very limited so life expectancy was nowhere near that of today. 

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries life expectancy at birth was probably about 35 years, 25% of people dying before the age of 5 and 40% dying before reaching adulthood. If you survived childhood and teenage years there was every chance you could live into your 50s or 60s.

Improvements in agriculture helped improve people’s diets and things did get better. By  the beginning of the 20^th century the life expectancy for men was 47 years and for women 50 years. This was helped by the improvement in public health with sewers being dug and improved water supplies. There was still a high mortality rate in children and also, although women had a higher life expectancy than men, many of them died in childbirth or as a result of it.

My mother’s mother was called Edith Butler and I found her ancestry quite upsetting as so many of the women died young. It seemed like a blighted line which ended with her death at 25, when my mother was only 3 years old. Not, in this case due to childbirth, but following a tragic accident while she was cleaning her home. I will give details of this event at the end of my story.